The media tried their best but they got nothing from Greg Taylor this afternoon regarding the Celtic dressing room’s collective view on the recent actions of Boli Bolingoli. Taylor was put up by the club today to speak to the hacks after manager Neil Lennon ahead of tomorrow night’s Champions League first round, winner takes all qualifier against KR Reykjavik at Celtic Park.
Several tried quite hard to get the Scotland international defender to venture onto territory that Taylor and the rest of the Celtic squad wish to remain private and the left back did an excellent job at giving absolutely nothing away.
You can only imagine the anger that exists in the Celtic dressing room and throughout the club as a result of the Belgian’s illicit visit to Spain for an overnighter after the Hamilton game. But we will not be reading quotes in the papers tomorrow from Greg Taylor putting the boot into Bolingoli, preferring to leave the matter to the club to deal with internally and privately.
When the matter is resolved it will be down to the manager or maybe even the CEO to step forward and explain the outcome – or maybe it will be a statement on the official website. Either way Celtic will control the narrative.
“We got a couple of good days training in this weekend and we’re ready for the game tomorrow. The onus is on this 90 mins. You never want to lose but in this game you can’t afford to. We know we need to go and do the job tomorrow,” Taylor did say.
“It’s not ideal (missing two games) but we had a good pre-season and we played two league games so there’s no excuses come tomorrow night. We’ll be ready.
“On a whole, the European campaign last season was a success. It was just disappointing to go out to Copenhagen. But now it’s the Champions League so that’s the competition we want to qualify for,” Taylor said.
“KR Reykjavik will make it hard for us. They’ll have their shape and probably sit behind the ball but they’ll have a threat on the counter attack so we’ll need to be aware. We can’t give any chances away defensively,” the Celtic defender stated.
Describing the Celtic support as the 12th man and praising them for their immense contribution particularly on European nights Taylor reckons that the players can cope by the fans being missing. stadium – “We won’t struggle to be up for it. We will miss our fans. On European nights they are superb but that’s not an excuse for us. We look forward to when they’re back but tomorrow night we understand what it’s all about.”
Watch Greg Taylor’s Media Conference from earlier today below…
📺 "We know we need to go and do the job tomorrow.”
Full #UCL Media Conference with Greg Taylor on YouTube 👇
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 17, 2020
And you can also now watch the Celtic manager Neil Lennon’s Media Conference…
📹 Full Media Conference with Neil Lennon as the Hoops boss looks ahead to tomorrow's #UCL First Round Qualifier.
Available now on YouTube 👇
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 17, 2020
Neil Lennon and Greg Taylor also took some time to promote the landmark total of £700k raised by the Celtic FC Foundation for the Football For Good campaign as the fund continues to deliver much needed support to those affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
A club like no other, indeed.
👏🍀 @FoundationCFC is delighted today to announce that the #FootballforGood Fund has risen to over £700K, as the fund continues to deliver much needed support to those affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 17, 2020
